Exploring the philosophy of DevOps for a living: Patrick Da Silva’s transformation
Patrick Da Silva from Polar Squad tells us how (and why) he is now 100% invested into DevOps
Patrick Da Silva is a mathematician turned into a software architect that wore a lot of hats in IT, until he became a DevOps consultant at Polar Squad. Read the discussion we had with him about how he got into DevOps, his progression into the field and his current occupations.
What path led you to become a DevOps consultant for Polar Squad?
When I left academia, I became a data scientist / machine learning engineer and worked in start-ups for a big part of my career; this is what opened most of my initial opportunities. After freelancing for a fashion e-commerce startup with a software infrastructure that was falling apart, I recommended to them to take the development in-house and create a tech department. They offered me the job of building that department, so I became their CTO for two years and helped them survive COVID-19.
After leaving that company, I met Polar Squad and fell in love with the world of DevOps; its philosophy is very close to how I see the world of technology and my personal values such as honesty, transparency, sustainability (environmental but also social), competence, and respect.
Tell us a bit about yourself and your background!
I’m originally from Montreal, and I moved to Berlin through the course of my studies in mathematics to do a master’s degree and a Ph.D. that I decided not to finish because as much as I loved mathematics (and I still do!), I didn’t like the academic life.
I have been in Berlin for almost ten years, and it feels like home. I am passionate about mathematics, learning to speak languages, and open-mic comedy shows. (Don’t give me a mic! I just like to watch and laugh!)
What tools do you really like to use in your work?
I worked with a few JavaScript and Python frameworks in the past. I’m very comfortable with Linux and AWS, but I would say when it comes to an understanding how a software team works, one of my favorite tools is my Git GUI, GitKraken. It tells me a lot to visualize a Git repository as a tree graph to understand the history of a codebase and the changes it went through. When I maintain an application, I use GitKraken and my IDE about 50/50; writing code is about 40% reading code, 50% understanding how to change the code, and 10% writing the code, so that’s where GitKraken helps me a lot. I am a big fan of Vim because I was writing mathematical documents at university using LaTeX and the LaTex-Suite (a.k.a. vim-latex), but now my usage of Vim restricts to when I need to edit some config file (which comes in handy when working with Kubernetes for example!).
What sets Polar Squad apart from other companies you worked at?
That’s definitely its culture. For instance, Polar Squad gives its consultants the free will of choosing which projects to work on without company pressure. This made me feel respected in the company because my input is genuinely valued and appreciated. My mental health has improved since I joined the company because I’m allowed to be myself and do what I do best in a positive environment.
How would you describe the culture in Polar Squad?
Polar Squad is extremely open, supportive, and humanizing. It encourages you to be the best version of yourself. It does not offer you a mould to fit in, which can be destabilizing at the beginning because you can have the reflex of expecting or asking the mould to fit you as the company wants you to from your experience with previous companies. Once you realize this mould will never be there, you become like a child learning to walk, and you become your own thing, which is a great feeling.
Tell us about your day-to-day routine!
I come to the office most of the time because the office is a very open and comfortable workplace space and I live nearby. I mostly work on my stuff on my laptop, but every now and then, someone comes with a work topic to discuss, and we talk about it on our office balcony. I’m learning a lot, so I end up having “balcony discussions” with my colleagues to get some insights on how to avoid wasting time and work the smart way when it comes to DevOps topics.
What kind of technical challenges do you meet at your work?
I don’t have a DevOps background, so even though the learning curve of the tools I need to learn doesn’t feel so steep, it often feels like a lot. Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform, CI/CD tools, these are not things you can pick up overnight. So sometimes I’m a bit overwhelmed by the amount of things I have to learn, but recently I took on a project where the customer was using CircleCI and AWS CloudFormation, and after having invested enough time learning those two, it felt like riding a bike again. “Plowing the fields”, as we say in Polar Squad!
How does it feel to work with developer teams? Do we have a common ground?
I have an extensive developer background, so it’s a very comfortable aspect of my job. I’ve been a developer and managed developers, so I understand their language and know what to expect, what the usual problems are, etc. Sometimes, when I see problems that slow down a team that can be solved at the code level, instead of inserting a hack at the operational level (i.e. in the Dockerfile or in Terraform configuration), I would just go straight in the code and fix what needs to be fixed so that the operational side can operate properly. I feel like this is a highly appreciated skill, and it makes me feel more unique!